Jeremiah 26
DOYLYVer. 2.—Stand in the court of the Lord’s house.] The great court was the place where both men and women ordinarily worshipped when they brought no sacrifice: for when they offered a sacrifice, they were to bring it into the inner court, otherwise called the court of Israel, or of the priests. Dr. Lightfoot.
—unto all the cities of Judah.] This was probably at the feast of tabernacles, when all the males were obliged to appear before the Lord. Abp. Usher. It is evident that “the cities” here are put for their inhabitants. Dr. Blayney.
— sat down in the entry of the new gate &c.] They sat down in that new gate of the temple, which king Jotham had built, to appease the tumult, and to hear the cause of Jeremiah. Bp. Hall.
people.] Or, “the sons of the people,” as in the margin: by whom are meant the populace of the lowest order, who are buried in a publick place of burial, having no distinct sepulchre to themselves, as all persons of rank and character, and especially of so honourable an order as that of the Prophets, used to have. But the king’s design was to brand his memory as far as he could by such an ignominious treatment of his remains. Dr. Blayney.
Jeremiah 26:6
6.—like Shiloh.] See the note on chap. vii. 12.
—and will make this city a curse &c.] Men shall use this phrase as a form of execration, God make thee like Jerusalem; compare chap. xxiv. 9: on the contrary, to make one a blessing implies that his name should be mentioned as a signal instance of God’s favour. W. Lowth. See the note on Gen. xlvm. 20.
Jeremiah 26:7
7.—the prophets] See the note on chap. xxv. 4.
The Septuagint rightly understands the word of the false prophets, such as was Hanamiah mentioned chap. xxviii. Compare chap. xxix. 1; xxxvii. 19. So the word “prophet” is taken, Hos. ix. 8. W. Lowth.
—in the house of the Lord.] That is, in the court before the house of the Lord, ver. 2; compare chap. vii. 10. The outer courts being holy ground, and de-
servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them, but ye have not hearkened;
Jeremiah 26:10
10.—the princes of Judah] These are the same who are called “the elders of the land,” ver. 17. The king’s counsellors, or chief officers of state, who were likewise members of the great Sanhedrim. It is uncertain when the great council, called the Sanhedrim, was instituted. Selden, and most other writers from the Jewish authors, date the rise of it from Moses’s appointing the seventy elders, Numb. xi. 16. After several intermissions of the authority, which was sometimes laid aside by the calamities or corruptions of the tunes, or else superseded by that sovereign power which was invested in the judges and kings, Jehoshaphat, when he sat about a general reformation, restored this ancient tribunal: see 2 Chron. xix. 8. This being the supreme court of the nation, the persons that sat in it are called here the “princes of Judah;” compare chap. xxix. 2; xxxiv. 19; and “the elders of the land,” ver. 17 of this chapter; and the “elders of the people,” chap. xix. 1, and by the Evangelists; see Matt. xxvii. 1; Luke xxii. 56; and “the senate of the children of Israel,” Acts v. 21. The same are probably meant by the “seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel,” mentioned Ezek. viii. 11. The word Sanhedrim is without doubt of Greek original, derived from a word which in the Greek Testament often signifies this great council; and from thence is adopted into the Jewish language, by Rabbinical writers, as many other Greek words are: but, the council may still have been of much more ancient date, and expressed in the Old Testament by “rulers, princes, or elders, or the senate of the people.” W. Lowth.
Before CHRIST about 609. c 1 Sam. 4. 12. ch. 7. 12. 14. Ps. 78. 64. Jeremiah is arraigned, and acquitted. Before CHRIST about 609. ¶ Or, at the door. judgment of death is for this man. d Chap. 7. 3. e Ver 19. is good and right in your eyes. f Mic. 1. 1. about 710. house of the LORD, and sat down ¶ in the entry of the new gate of the LORD’s house.
Jeremiah 26:14
- As for me, behold, I am in your hand: &c.] Compare chap. xxxviii. 5. It was the proper business of the Sanhedrim to pass sentence upon prophets; and, if they found them guilty of making false pretences to prophecy, to put them to death, the punishment which the law had provided in that case, Deut. xviii. 20. W. Louth.
Jeremiah 26:18
- — Zion shall be plowed like a field, &c.] See the note on Mic. iii. 12.
Jeremiah 26:20
- And there was also a man that prophesied &c.] According to the opinion of many commentators, the words that follow may be ascribed to an opposite party, who, by a contrary precedent to the foregoing, urged the condemnation of Jeremiah. But it is more probable that the elders concluded their speeches, ver. 19; and that the writer of the narrative goes on to observe in his own person, that notwithstanding the precedent of Micah, there had been a later precedent in the present phesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spake to all the people of Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; ᵃ Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.
Jeremiah 26:24
- Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam &c.] Both he and his father Shaphan were chief ministers under Josiah,